The Anonymous bounty hunter number IV
by AndShadowsWatchingOverMe
Summary: She had walked Mojave many long years. Stories of the gasmasked bounty hunter preceded her. And now a job has taken her to the Divide. There she finds a lonely little girl called Arizona, who just might be able to help her with her search. Rated M for violence.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:**_ This is a work of fanfiction and all the places and characters belong to Bethesda and something like that. And if I owned Fallout I'd be like rich and stuff. Well, I'm not so obviously I don't own it. (Perfect link of deduction!)_

**Author's note: **_Okay, this is going to be my first attempt on a multiple-chapter fanfic so it should be interesting. Let's see how long it will last. I'm ashamed to admit but I'm not yet sure how this will play out. Anyways, I should probably give a little info about Ano. I got the idea for her while on bus the other day and used a whole class in math to draw the protagonist on the side of my notebook (a time well used, I'd say). I guess her gasmask would look something like the Hazmat Darklight Cowl but not quite. Hmm… Maybe I should just draw it and upload the picture… Oh well, I'll see what I can do._

_ Sorry, the first chapter is going to be a bit shorter. I'll try my best with the following. _

_ All in all, wish me luck! And oh, reviews please._

**1.**

A lonely figure was approaching the Canyon Wreckage with even steps. She had a stride of a soldier although she looked nothing like one. Sun had set a few hours ago and darkness was setting quickly.

A few coyotes chased her for a while, biting her ankles and trying to get her attention. She didn't even spare them a look and after a while they left her be. After a while everyone would leave her. It was nothing new to the woman in a gasmask.

She was rather tall and thin although the latter was hard to see since she always wore those saggy clothes that hid her body almost completely. The only patches of skin that were exposed to the cooling night air were the tips of her fingers and parts of her scalp. They were all full of tiny scars and burn marks. A smart one would guess that so was the rest of her boy but she chose to show that to no-one. Instead she hid behind the gasmask and clothes that would have fitted a woman twice her size.

As she approached the gateway to the canon, the stars began to show one after the other on the sky. Somewhere near a hunter gecko screamed at the lonely wanderer but made no attempt to attack. She gave him no threat.

There was someone standing by the gate. An old man dressed in a regular settler outfit complete with a worn fedora. He was gazing at the text written on the side of a car. _Lonesome road_, it said. The woman in a gasmask snorted.

"Ah, Ano. Good to see you made it. Did you have a good trip to Nelson?"

She said nothing, her body language gave away nothing. But the man let out a hearty laugh.

"Heard 'bout it on the radio. They think the Courier did it. Good job, lass."

She nodded shortly.

"I bet you're hear 'bout a new assignment. Well, it just so happens that I've got something for ya. A rich gentleman from the Strip wants some modifications to his eyebot model. You know, the one the Courier auctioned not too long ago? Turns out there should be at least four or five of 'em left in the Divide. They said to pay four hundred caps from each. You interested, lass?"

The woman called Ano tilted her head and adjusted the rifle on her back. She seemed to be thinking. After some time, she lifted six fingers up.

"Six hundred? Well, I don't know lass… He was a rich feller. I'll see what I can do. So, you up to it?"

The woman nodded.

"Good. Now, this one is going to be a bit tricky. You are gonna hafta look for destroyed eyebots and inside them should be circuit board. If it's in a good working condition, you should be able to track it with your Pip-boy… even if yours is a bit outdated."

Her fingers twitched towards her pocket. She didn't think there was nothing wrong with her hand held version of Pip-boy 2000. Sure, she'd buy the 3000, but it would be such a waste of good caps.

"Bring back at least four. But remember, Divide is a wicked place. The stories I've heard from the Courier… Damn. It's gonna be a hell of a travel there."

The goggled head turned towards the entrance. If anything, that was an understatement.

"Hey, you gonna be okay, lass?"

She huffed through the gasmask, the most emotional response he could get from her. The man smiled.

"What am I talking about? You are _the _anonymous bounty hunter number IV! You can do anything. Good luck, lass."

With that, the man walked down the slope towards the direction the woman had come few minutes ago. She followed the man with her eyes as he grew smaller in the distance before disappearing entirely. She adjusted the pack on her back and walked to the gate. Someone had written _Courier six _on a side of a bus. The woman gave a quick glance towards the other text, the _Lonesome road _part. She scoffed and shook her head. Every road was lonesome to the ones like her.

It wasn't like this was going to be something new to her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: **_As promised, this chapter is a bit longer. I had to start playing the Lonesome Road again to refresh my memory and I tried to stay in Ano's character while doing that. Loved it! But I got killed a bit too many times for my liking._

_ I know I mentioned Arizona already in the description but she isn't going to be in the story until like chapter three or something. _

**Disclaimer:**_Yea, I still don't own Fallout or any of the characters in the world of Fallout. Bu then I guess I do own Ano, right? Since she is an OC. But no, I don't own Fallout. Blah blah blah._

* * *

_"Is she secured now?"_

_ "Yeah, yeah, she can't get off. I made sure of it."_

_ "She already got off once before. What makes you think she won't wiggle off this time?"_

_ "Look, I nailed her palms to the damn wood. She isn't getting off anytime soon."_

_ There was a long pause during which no-one talked. Someone was whimpering but the sound was quickly swallowed by the gusting wind._

_ "This is going to take too long", someone complained. _

_ "Shut up, you lazy scum. We are not going to wait here until she dies."_

_ "Yeah and what if she escapes another time? Dead Sea won't be happy – "_

_ "Yeah", someone new piped in. "He might nail _you _up there in her replacement!"_

_ "Fine, fine. Bring me some gasoline and we will make this quick._

_-o-o-o-o-o-_

The canyon had been the easy part of Ano's travel. It had taken her several days due to the wind and some critters but mostly it had been child's play to her. Now she was finally stepping out into the open and could give a first look at the Divide opening before her.

Stories about the Courier's journey through the hellish place had been popular a year back. People had been talking about marked men and irradiated deathclaws and tunnelers. Everybody had been talking about the huge missile that could have destroyed the whole Mojave if the Courier had chosen so. Ano couldn't understand why he hadn't simply pointed the damn thing to the Legion camp on the other side of the river. But it was in the past now. And the heroic stories of the Courier tended to be greatly exaggerated thanks to his fans.

There was a man sitting by the cliff. He gave a long look at the woman in a gasmask but said nothing. He nodded shortly and Ano nodded back. Then he turned his eyes back on the view before him. It was Ulysses. She'd seen him a couple of times but he probably didn't recognize her and she didn't feel tempted to go and sit with him so she just kept on walking.

Ano walked near the cliff, giving some glances to the Divide until she reached the Hopeville silo door. By that time the wind had picked up and it was tossing around her scarf that she used to hide the bandages on her neck. She tugged it closer before prying the door open. The dry air hadn't been kind on her burn marks and the cool moistness of the silo mad her sigh in relief.

Though her scars had long since faded from the angry black and red they had been after the… incident… they still ached from time to time. It was like ghost pain, there was nothing she could do about it. Her bandages around her arm were itching like crazy. She chose to ignore it. She'd have to find a safe place to remove the old bandages and replace them with fresh ones.

The anonymous bounty hunter number IV walked down the hall into a room that had cables hanging from the roof. The electric cables still gave a few sparks as she passed them. She paid them no mind. There were a bunch of destroyed sentrybots lying around but otherwise the place was empty.

So, that is one of those notorious missiles, she though as her Pip-boy started vibrating in her pocket to warn her about the radiation. She had thought that the missile would be gone by now, thanks to the Courier, but no, there it lay. She saw a couple of eyebots flying around the hatch but none of them looked upgraded enough to actually contain one of those circuit boards that actually held some important data on them. Not that Ano knew much about technology. Science had never been her strong suit, not even back when she –

She stopped the thought before it could get into her head. She didn't have time for this.

Since the Courier had already done all that needed to be done to open the silo doors, Ano only had to walk through. She almost fell over a destroyed eyebot.

Could it really be this easy? She kneeled next to the eyebot and probed it with her bandaged fingers. It was dead alright. Humming silently she dug her valued Swiss army knife from her pocket and screwed the back of the robot's body off. Ano gave a long look at the robot.

Well, it seemed to be made out of metal and wires. But what was she supposed to look for again?

Angry with herself, she pocketed her knife again. What the hell was a circuit board anyway? She was a mercenary, not a nerd! She wanted to kick the damn thing but that might ruin the source of her profit.

Next she dug up Pip-boy. She tried to look for clues from her notes but there was nothing there. She let out a long sigh. This wasn't what she was made for. This wasn't what the Legion had created when they had set her on fire. She was a killer, that's all. Why would the old man even give her this job, he knew what she was like. He was probably the only one that actually knew what she looked like under the mask – at least he was the only one she'd left alive after seeing her.

Tired with the anger Ano picked the whole eyebot into pieces and took its whole core off. It would weigh her down so maybe she could find a place to store it until she would return back to Mojave.

Her Pip-boy clock told her that it was already late. Traveling never did anything good for her sleeping cycles. She should probably find a place to rest for the night. Moving in an unknown territory with little rest would be as stupid as shooting your leg for fun.

There was a locked room to her left. Apparently the Courier hadn't been able to unlock it with his skills. It didn't surprise Ano. She had met the Courier once down by the camp Searchlight. He wasn't interested in anything else than himself. The only reason he stood up from the rest of the world was that he had survived a bullet to the head. There was a computer next to the door but it had apparently been shot. Well, someone had been unhappy with his hacking skills.

Without breaking a single bobby pin Ano opened the door. Locks were her specialty. Even those doors that seemed to be so hard that they needed the key to open it, were a walk in the park for her.

Inside there was some scrap, nothing grand. She did find a couple of stimpacks from a first-aid kit on the wall but not much else. The door was easy enough to relock so Ano felt safe enough to get into her bedroll. She hid the insides of the eyebot under some scrap metal before dozing off.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_"Wow, look at that go!"_

_ "Shut up. Can we go now?"_

_ "Why isn't she screaming?"_

_ "Because she's mute, idiot. Are you two quite satisfied now?"_

_ "Yeah, I guess. I mean there's no way she can crawl out of this one!"_

_ "Yeah yeah, let's go already. Come on. Dead Sea will have our asses if we take too long."_

_ The flames were reaching out towards the sky and the woman was fighting to keep her screams._

_-o-o-o-o-o-_

Ano woke up to the terrible itching of her scars. Still groggy from sleep she reached for the Pip-boy. It was six in the morning and sun had just got up somewhere outside the silo. Silently she began her morning routines.

She removed her oversized hoodie and tossed it on the floor. Under that she wore only a tank top and bandages that covered her whole upper body. She'd been told that she was copying Joshua Graham with her style. She'd shot those loudmouths without a second thought.

Careful not to scrape the tender skin, Ano started undoing the bandages starting from her chest and going down on a slow pace. In some places her skin would stick to the soft cloth and get ripped. The pain was nothing but a ticklish feeling to her and Ano kept on wrapping the bandages away.

Once her upper body and arms had been released from its wraps, Ano stood up to take off her camo pants and military style boots. Also her lower body had been bandaged but only down to her knees. She had been lucky enough; her calves and feet had been spared by the fire. She didn't feel joy though, since her legs were still scarred for other reasons. A couple of whiplashes there, a stab wound there. She removed the bandages from her lower body also until she was completely naked in that small room.

She was ugly. She knew that. This was what they had made her. She had been molded by the fire and not all change is for good. But it had made her stronger. It had made her realize that there were no knights in shining armor that would come to save damsels in distress. If someone was going to help her then it was going to be her herself.

She had been called a ghoul before she started to wear that mask. She had shot those too.

Ano took a can of lotion from her pocket and started covering her scars with it. It was made from banana yucca root and broc flowers and it would keep the itching at bay for a while.

In her backpack there were wraps for three changes. It wasn't that much but she would not complain. She was no lady, a little bit of dirt wouldn't kill her. She picked up the clean wrapping and started form the bottom. Careful to cover every inch of her skin, Ano wrapped herself like a mummy. She made the bandages tight; they would grow loose after a long trek anyway. When she was finally satisfied with the work, she pulled back her top, trousers and the hoodie. Ano slung her scoped rifle on her back and picked up the bedroll. What was left of the eyebot was safely tucked under the pile of scrap; hopefully no-one would touch it until Ano got back.

Ready to face the Divide, Ano let her feet carry her forward. There was no point in dwelling in the past or her form. There was only the next mission and the caps. That was the life of an anonymous bounty hunter number IV.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:**_ Do I need to put this on every chapter? No, this will be the last one. All the Fallout related things in this fanfic and the following chapters belong to Bethesda, I do not own Fallout. And this is the last time I'm putting this in here. :)_

**Author's note:**_ Finally we get to meet Arizona. I had some difficulties with her character; let me know if anything odd stands out. I'm open for critique! In this chapter when Ano goes into the Hopeville Missile Base HQ, it's in awful state, much more destroyed than in the game, so don't get distracted by that._

_ Thank you for __Radio Free Death__ for reviewing. It's always good to have someone pointing out the flaws in the story since I have some difficulties noticing them myself. So thanks. Obviously English isn't my native language so it's nice to see there wasn't any more typos or awkward sentences. Please feel free to correct me again if you happen to read more of this fic. And about those animals behaving oddly, I guess I had forgotten that animal friend perk isn't every player's choice. I always take it and tend to forget it's something special. I will try to remember that in the future._

_ Enjoy, read and review!_

Stepping out of the silo bunker, Ano had to squint her eyes in the direct sunlight. Without her goggles she would have been in trouble for sure. The sky was yellow and the clouds were swirling around making her feel sick just watching it. Ano took a look around her. She saw nothing but ruins of the old world, rocky hills and crumbled buildings. Further away she spotted men whose skin was angry red like it had been burned off. These must be the infamous marked men. They didn't look that bad. She scoped their movements with her rifle for a while until she shot those she saw.

She sneaked down the slope and wandered into the little settlement that had been marked as Hopeville in her Pip-boy. Her little hand held device was picking up a signal from a destroyed eyebot somewhere close. Good. But the damn thing wasn't accurate enough; it wouldn't be able to pinpoint the location of a robot. So she would have to do this the old fashioned way.

So she started looting. She dug around a couple of barracks but found nothing but these cursed souls. The marked men tried to kill her so she shot them. Maybe the marked men would let her walk amongst them if she took her mask off and showed them her scarred skin. But that she wouldn't do, no now, not ever. So she just shot them.

The task turned out to be harder than she'd thought. The hostiles gave her no resistance to speak of but she just couldn't find the damn robot. Yet her Pip-boy kept on vibrating in her pocket.

Then she turned her gaze to a building she had considered too destroyed to enter. It was as good place to look as any and she was running out of options. She gave it a scrutinizing look through the scope. There were no marked men around it which immediately put her on guard. The men were everywhere so why not around that building? Ano slipped down from a place she had been using as a shelter.

She saw a couple of mines set on the ground between her and the building. She hated explosives, she'd never gotten the knack of those things. Ano grabbed few pebbles and threw them on the mines. They beeped their warnings and blew off. Grinning under her mask she threw more stones and created a safe passage for her to use to get to the door.

It was locked. Hmh. Interesting. Ano took a glimpse at her Pip-boy. This had been… Hopeville Missile Base Headquarters. She clicked her tongue and proceeded into opening the lock. It didn't take long to hear it open with. Ano grinned inwardly.

The inside of the HQ was silent and moist. But the mud on the floor had been smeared and there were little footprints scattered on the floor. Someone had been there recently. Ano unsheathed a bowie knife she had taken from a dead marked man just a few minutes ago. It was a good knife, although she wasn't that good with melee. When it came down to brawling, she liked to kill her opponents with her bare hands. But knife looked much more threatening than mere fists.

Her Pip-boy had located one living creature in the building. Ano sneaked closer towards the source. It wasn't aggressive, not yet at least. She pocketed the device and kept moving.

There was an office room and in that office there was a desk. Ano's eyes darted under the desk. There was something down there. Or more likely someone.

A little girl was staring at her, giving her a death glare that would make a nightcrawler take a step back. She looked shocked to see a living being in the HQ but her fear was quickly replaced by stubbornness. She obviously wasn't ready to go down easy. She lifted a plasma pistol with slightly shivering hands.

"Reach for the sky, mister!" she hissed from under the desk.

Ano would have just wanted to leave the girl be. She wasn't into hurting minors and the girl was obviously scared. But she was sitting next to a destroyed eyebot – a first one she had encountered after leaving the silo bunker. The woman tilted her head.

"I said: hands in the air, mister, or I will shoot. I swear. You wouldn't the first bastard I've shot!"

This was absurd. The child was barely eleven. If Ano wanted, she could just scoop the pistol from her hands and twitch her neck like a branch. Ano lifted a bowie knife for the girl to see.

"Look, mister, I would shoot you before you'd get a step closer so I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Getting tired of these games, Ano grabbed the gun from the girl's un-expecting fingers. It went off in the girl's hands but the green energy from it didn't even scratch Ano. Energy pistols weren't exactly her choice of weaponry either but this one was well kept. Ano snapped the energy cells off of it and tossed the gun back to the child. Maybe she had spare ammo, maybe she didn't. The woman didn't care. She dragged the destroyed eyebot from under the desk and started destroying it a bit more.

It was same with this one as well, Ano had no idea what to do with it. She dug the insides of the lifeless eyebot and ended up ripping it apart much like the one before. Meanwhile the little girl was giving her strange looks.

"Uhm, sir?" she whispered from under the table. "Aren't you going to kill me?"

Ano lifted her head to look at the girl quickly but turned her gaze back at the robot again. No, she was not. She had not been paid to do so and the girl didn't pose an immediate threat to her. Besides, she was a child. That would have been wrong.

"W- what about… um… you are not going to rape me, are you?"

Ano scoffed at that.

"Um… okay. So, can I get my cells back?"

After a long while of silence, the girl let out a screech and lunged onto Ano.

"You son of a bitch! You're just gonna leave me with no ammo to a place like this? Imma rip your face of, fucker! Imma gut you like a radroach you are!"

The little girl was surprisingly agile and it took some wiggling for Ano to get her down. She didn't want to hurt her but obviously the girl didn't have any problem with hurting _her_. She hissed through the gasmask and pinned the child onto the floor. Stupid girl. The bounty hunter held her knife to her neck to silence her.

Then they both heard the guttural sound from outside the building. The girl gave a stubborn look at her captor.

"Come on! I can help you, god damn it! Just lemme go!"

Someone was banging on the door and Ano lifted her knife from the girl's neck. The child got up immediately and ran away deeper into the building. Ano couldn't care less. She picked up her Pip-boy. It told her that there were five of them outside, whatever they were. She sneaked into the hall, jumped behind some rubble and lifted her rifle. She rested it against her shoulder with comfort and let out an involuntary sigh. It felt right. The gun felt good on her.

The door burst open and three marked men rushed inside. Ano killed the first one with a quick blow to his head and the other one followed quickly. Blood splattered onto the wall behind them but the third one managed to dodge her bullet meant for him. Two more followed in through the door and through the commotion Ano only managed to kill the other one of the two.

She dove behind the rubble as other one of the remaining two started shooting at her with some sort of an energy weapon. God, she hated those things. She reloaded her trusty gun swiftly and listened to the men at same time. What was the other one doing?

The answer to that came quickly as she heard hasty steps getting closer to her hiding spot. A marked man dressed in a resemblance of a Legion armor advanced on her, trying to stab her with a bowie knife much like hers. Ano felt the air leave her lungs as the man bashed her onto the floor. The knife sank into her skin making her screech aloud and the skinless man was laughing maniacally like he had already won.

The headwear he was sporting was familiar to Ano. It marked the man as a Decanus in the ranks of the Legion. Dead Sea had had one just like that. Dead Sea.

Ano felt rage fill her whole body as she headbutted the man on top of her. The gasmask let out a loud clang as it connected with his face. The bounty hunter quickly rolled to reverse their positions so that she was on the top. Without hesitation she ripped his goggles off and dug his eyes out with her fingers. The man was screaming like a little girl when she slipped his throat open.

One more to go, she thought, grinning like a madman under the mask.

But it turned out someone else had beat her to it.

The remaining man was aiming his gun to Ano's head when they both heard a tell-tale beeping from his pocket. The marked man looked confused the moment before he blew up with a loud boom.

Ano just stared at the now dismembered man, until she heard the snickering from befind the corner.

"Did you see his face? Priceless!"

The child gave her a wide grin. Ano turned her face from the girl to the body and back. The work was impressive.

"He never saw me coming. I could've bombed you too, but I didn't. Just so you know."

Ano doubted that the girl could have managed to get so close without her noticing but it didn't matter. She started digging the pockets of the dead men.

"Oh, lookee here! Energy cells", the girl said after looting the man she'd killed. "I wonder if this freaky gasmasked dude is gonna let me keep 'em."

Ano scoffed again and waved her hand to the girl. Let her keep them. It had been her kill so the loot was by all rights hers.

"And um… can I have my cells back? You obviously ain't gonna need 'em."

She tossed the cells back to the girl.

"Thanks, mister", she cheered.

After emptying their pockets form caps and ammo Ano jabbed a stimpack between her ribs. She felt the liquid under her skin knitting the stab wound closed. After checking the damage she seated herself near the eyebot once again. The damned thing annoyed her beyond reason. How was she supposed to carry the whole thing with her?

"What're you doing?" came the innocent sound of the little girl from next to Ano's ear. The woman flinched inwardly. How did she move so silently?

"Are you good at robotics?" she asked excitedly. When Ano snapped a wire with her rough hands, she sighed: "I guess not. I am though. Momma taught me everything she knew!"

The girl was annoying her. A lot. She was beaming like the damn sun behind Ano, poking at the eyebot like the woman hadn't just a moment ago threatened her with a knife!

"That there's the motor, that thing there keeps the 'bot up 'n flying. Oh, and there's the circuit board an' an' an' – "

Ano cut her off by pointing at the thing the girl had pointed just before. She gave the girl a stern look but it went mostly unnoticed since her face was mostly hidden. The girl seemed to understand anyway.

"That? Yea, that'd be the circuit board. Why?"

Ano stuck the bowie knife into the robot and tried to pry the thing out of there. The girl screamed and shoved her away from it.

"You'll break it, you jackass! Here, lemme do it."

It took the girl thirty seconds to get the thing off. She held it like a prize.

"Now it's mine! Haw haw!" she laughed and ran out of the house.

Ano stared after the girl and started growling. That little girl was going to pay!


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note:**_ Let's try something new! (And by new I mean something almost every other author does.) Let's try a change in the point of view! I think I'm going to be trying to write in Arizona's point of view for a couple of chapters but most of the attention will be on Ano's. If you just have time, let me know what you think._

(Arizona's point of view)

Hah! Stupid son of a bitch! Trusting her with the circuit board like that. Stupid fuck-for-brains!

If a bad-ass brute like him was after this thing, it must've been important for someone. That meant someone was going to pay plenty of caps for it. Now that was interesting. And Arizona could really use the caps right now. She'd seen this _a-maz-ing_ mod for her plasma defender that she had named Gloria. With that she'd be the bad-assest mercenary in the whole wide Wasteland. She'd even get to meet the Courier and Mr. House and do jobs to that Kimball dude an' kick the Legion's as an' an' an' –

Her thoughts were cut short when she heard someone enter the barracks. The marked men? She would've heard the approach from _miles_ away. Stupid fuckers were always making noise. Arizona tried to listen harder but heard nothing. Maybe they'd left. No surprise there. The place had been looted anyways. Stupid fuckers.

Oh, the dude in the gasmask had been a sight to behold. For a moment there Arizona had felt like she was in some sort of an old world movie or something, one of those horror flicks they showed down by the Old Mormon Fort back home. She had been half expecting for the guy to pull out a kitchen knife and start hacking and slashing with it. Oh yeah, he had had a knife. But not a kitchen knife so it didn't count.

The girl was surprised when someone grabbed her leg and pulled her down from her hiding spot. She'd climbed on top of a locker behind some boxes; no-one should've been able to spot her! But no, she came face to face – or more likely face to mask – with that dude in a gasmask. He was holding that before mentioned knife against her throat.

"Okay, okay, chill out, dude!" Arizona shouted. "I was gonna give it back, I swear! Here, take it!"

She'd hoped to sell it and now she gave the thing away this easy? But the dude was scary as hell and the knife was sharp. Let him have it. For now.

The dude grabbed the circuit board and pocketed it quickly. It'd probably be easy to get the thing from his pocket but Arizona wasn't going to try. She wasn't suicidal, just a bit foolhardy. There was a big difference.

"I bet you don't even know what that is", she said, straightening her too big armor after he let go of her. The dude didn't say anything. "You retarded or something?"

He didn't even seem to notice her once the transaction had been done. Son of a bitch! He was _not _going to just ignore her!

"Imma go with you now."

A-_hah_! That provoked an action out of him. He turned to stare at her with that empty expression of his. Arizona was grinning from ear to ear.

"I'm just a little girl lost in a nuke town. I'm gonna die if you just leave me here. I promise, I'll be _reeeeally _silent. Like a shadow or something. So, whaddya think?"

The big-ass scary mercenary was staring down at Arizona for at least like a minute. The whole time the girl was waiting for him to grab his knife again and impale her with it. But no, he was just staring. Maybe he was sizing her up?

After that minute he shook his head and walked out of the barrack.

"Oh, come on, man! I could really help you! I'm good at sneaking and I can shoot down a tunneler with this baby", she said lifting Gloria for him to see. "An' those eyebots? I know where to find another one!"

That made him stop and give a glance at her. He pointed his finger towards the silo.

"Not that one. I figured you'd already butchered that one. Naw, there's another one in this big-ass building underground. The Courier pretty much cleaned that place up so I was like digging around there when I found this door an' it was locked so I – "

A loud roar of a gunshot silenced Arizona as the mercenary shot someone somewhere far away. Arizona squinted her eyes to see what he'd shot.

"Wow, dude. Your perception must be like that of an eagle with a telescope or something! Did ya kill it? Whatever it was."

No response, but she hadn't expected anything anyway. Arizona was starting to wonder if the man was mute or something. Not much of a people-person anyways. But he was a killer with that rifle of his and Arizona had seen what he did to that marked man with his bandaged fingers. She didn't want to get on his bad side. Not any more anyway.

So she gave the man her best charming smile and swung her plasma defender around her finger. This was going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship!


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's note**_: Two chapters in one day! This is new to me :D But I did finish this next chapter already and though: "Why wait?" We're back at Ano's point of view now. I'll let you know when it'll be Arizona's turn again. _

_ Thanks to __MrVemom10__ for reviewing. It's always nice to know that people actually like what I'm writing. It makes me feel all warm and fluffy inside. _

_ Now that I have scared of all the sane readers with my last remark it's time to get back to the actual story. Read, review and enjoy!_

* * *

The little girl was a real pain in Ano's ass. She just wouldn't shut up. And the fact that the bounty hunter gave her no response to her babbling didn't seem to slow her down one bit. Damn, the kid was talking for the both of them now.

They had scouted the place for any more eyebots although the girl – Arizona, as she had introduced herself – had told her many times that there were no little robots left in the place. Ano didn't trust the sneaky little girl one bit. But it appeared that she hadn't lied.

"You know, I can take you to the place where I saw that one eyebot. Bu it's a long walk thought. We'd hafta cross some dangerous territories."

Dangerous. Hah! The anonymous bounty hunter number IV laughed at danger. She huffed through the mask and kept on walking. They had killed many marked men on their way through the place, Ano more than the girl. But Arizona had surprised the bounty hunter with her skills. She was sneakier than she looked and that energy weapon she carried? Ano had to admit that it made her uneasy. But so far the girl hadn't tried to shoot her so she got to keep it.

The sun had set hours ago when they finally reached the collapsed overpass tunnel entrance.

"You know what'd be cool?" Arizona asked from behind her. "If we'd make a camp an' stay for the night. Those tunnels are full of tunnelers and shit. You don't wanna go there un-rested."

The girl had a point. Half an hour later they had climbed on top a collapsed building, set a fire on some old crates and Arizona had produced two packs of Blamco's mac n' cheese.

Ano was surveying the area around them for enemies but it seemed like they had already killed all that there was to kill around here. It was a silent night and only wind was howling through the collapsed buildings. Behind the goggles Ano closed her wary eyes.

"Hey… um… mister?"

Why on earth did that girl keep calling her a man? It didn't matter really, but it was getting irritating.

"You know, the place is pretty much cleaned up so we could both sleep through the night. Or, I could take guard us if you wanna sleep or something."

Now why would she do that? Ano was immediately skeptical. But the look on the girl's face seemed sincere enough. She sighed through the mask and waved her hand dismissively. Let the girl sleep too. She was the adult in this weird situation so if anyone was going to stay up it was going to be her.

"Okay, thanks!" the girl beamed like she understood the bounty hunter's small gestures. She was grinning madly now. It made Ano uneasy. "What's your name, mister?"

Ano shook her head and closed her eyes.

"Not a talker, are ya? That's okay. I don't mind. Are you mute?"

Ano shrugged, not opening her eyes.

"Oh, that's cool. I once met this guy whose tongue had been cut off 'cause he kept on lying on everyone 'cept his wife who was really nice, she gave me cookies made out of real chocolate, you know how that's really rare nowadays. But anyways, this mute guy, he showed me his tongue and it was so cool! This guy that had cut it was really scary, you know, he was at least _this_ tall an' – "

Her chatter was surprisingly calming and Ano felt her body relax in the warm glow of the fire. How long had it been since she had spent a time this long with another person? Too long. Last time must have been when the old man had found her hanging from that cross. But she was too tired to think about it now. She was alive and well and on a mission. Past had no part in this.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_"By the God, woman! You're still alive!"_

_ His voice was gravelly like he had swallowed rocks. But to her it was like the voice of an angel. Finally someone had arrived to finish her off. Why couldn't she just die?_

_ "Hold on, girl. I'll get you down."_

_ "Are you sure about it? She isn't going to make it; you're just going to end up hurting yourself."_

_ "Shut your hole and help me kid."_

_ "Fine, fine. But don't come sulking after she dies in your care."_

_ Why were these men taking her down? They didn't need to do that, they could just put a bullet in her skull, why were they doing this to her?_


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note:**_ I would never go against a tunneler with unarmed weaponry. I prefer shooting them with scoped guns and running away when I miss and they notice me. Hmh. No wonder I feel like a chicken while playing Fallout. I'm not even sure if it is possible to beat a tunneler with bare fists in the game but let's all pretend that it is possible for the sake of the story. Let's just think that Ano is so badass that can do it. Who cares about credibility, right? _

_ Thanks again for __MrVemom10__. Reviews always make my day!_

_ Read, review and enjoy!_

* * *

Ano was half expecting to wake up finding the girl gone, all the valuables stolen. But no, there she was, snoring slightly while resting against a concrete block. Ano let out a long sigh.

She could leave now. She could just leave the girl be. Go on her way, find two or three more eyebots and get out of this cursed place.

But she was just a small girl. She might have a talent with explosives and energy weapons but she was still just a child. Leaving her all alone in the Divide would be equal to murder. And Ano could be many things, but a child murderer she was not. So she just shook Arizona up and helped her to pack up the leftover food from the day before.

They wandered into the collapsed overpass tunnel and Ano noticed the girl's expressions go rigid the moment the ruble blocked the early rays of the sun. She gave a questioning look at her which was a lost cause since Ano's facial expressions were hidden under the mask.

"I have kind of a sort of a teeny tiny case of claustrophobia", the girl whispered. "Besides, these places are _filled_ with tunnelers. They just love these closed quarters. You'll see."

Ano gave a scrutinizing look at the tunnel. It was dark and eerie place and when she listened closely, she could hear something crawling nearby. She crouched down and scanned the area with her Pip-boy.

"Don't even try", Arizona whispered. "They're way deeper in there, they won't come this close to the entrance. Believe me. Come on. The quicker we get on the move, the faster we're out of here."

They started advancing slowly through the tunnels. They dodged some vehicles and passed long dead NCR troopers but for a while those were the only interesting things in the tunnel.

Then Ano heard something move further on. She poked Arizona's shoulder to let her know.

The girl gave her a startled look and gripped her weapon tighter. She swallowed hard and started shivering a bit. Ano pointed the ground, ordering the child to stay put. The girl nodded bravely.

The woman sneaked as silent as a shadow to peek from behind an upside-down truck. She saw two ugly humanoid creatures that could be nothing else but tunnelers. They were digging up some old bones near a hole on the ground. Ano aimed calmly and shot the other one's head off.

The remaining creature let out a fierce howl and rushed towards Ano. She shot it without trouble.

"Wow", Arizona squeaked. "You're like my personal hero, mister!"

She just tilted her head to that. Hero? That was new.

The situation could have been sweet but it turned out that Arizona's happy squeals had been heard by the tunnel's other inhabitants. Two more tunnelers came running towards them, advancing on the immediate threat, which was of course Ano. They jumped at her at her and managed to get her by surprise. The bigger one tore the rifle from her hands with his scaled claws while the other one rushed past her to get to Arizona. Ano heard the girl scream and fire her weapon and felt rage fill her insides with a burning sensation. Adrenaline made her feel strong as she grabbed the tunneler from her and bashed it against the concrete multiple times. The creature's blood splashed around her bandaged fingers as she kept on mauling it with rage. She didn't stop until the creature stopped twitching in her grip.

"Forget about the hero", Arizona hollered from behind her next to a big pile of green goo. "You're a fucking _barbarian!_ That was awesome!"

She did _feel _awesome. Every time she let herself go with the bloodlust she felt like a fucking superhero! But it was wrong and she knew it so she just pretended it wasn't there. But under her mask she was grinning like a madman.

After that they were in trouble. Their shooting had apparently woken up a whole pack of tunnelers and they just kept on pouring down on them snarling and clawing like rabid animals that they were. Ano and Arizona were stuck down there for hours. Just as they thought they'd gotten on the safe side of everything, there were more pouring in. After a while it seemed that Arizona was able to forget that they were in a closed space and she was screaming and shooting like a real mercenary. She got hides from most of the tunnelers and told cheerily that she was going to make a new armor out of those. On Ano's mind she would look just like a fierce little tunneler and she had to admit: the look would suit the child.

Once they finally reached the other side of the tunnel, sun was already setting. Ano siged under the mask. They'd found nothing. They had barely advanced at all. All they'd done was kill some tunnelers and lose ammo while doing that.

"I went another way when I was here last time. Much less critters but some of the tunnels are so small that you wouldn't be able to make it", Arizona said cheerily. "Bu I do know that there's a nearly collapsed building near here that might be a good hiding spot for the night."

Ano waved her hand for the girl to show the way. All the fighting had drained her out of her strength and all she wanted to do was set out a camp and sleep through the night without a worry in the world.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note:**_Tried to make a longer chapter this time. Something about this one just doesn't sit well with me. But I decided to post it anyway. I'm on vacation now so I should be able to post more chapters soon. Let's hope that they work out better than this one._

_Read, review and enjoy!_

* * *

(Arizona's point of view)

Once they had emerged from the awful tunnel, they headed towards the huge building in the horizon. They climbed up the side of the building, Arizona first and the dude right behind her and Arizona felt proud when she could offer him this cool place to hide for the night.

The dude had been silent… err… more silent… than usual and his pose was somehow slumped. Well, he had killed like a thousand tunnelers, and dozens of 'em with his bare hands! Now, there was a father figure she would have wanted while growing up. Not that sleazy drunk at home.

Ah, this place. It had looked so cool from down bellow when Arizona had passed it last time and she'd been right. It was this huge building that had for some reason survived the earthquakes and all. The Courier had done some cleaning up in here as well and there were no hostiles in there. That was a welcome improvement. There were only a couple of dead guys in the corps of a skyscraper and the place was relatively clean. One of the dead men was wearing this cool NCR veteran outfit and had the nicest helmet. Arizona tired to pry it off but managed to pull the corpse's head with it. The man's neck let out a crunch and Arizona held the skull in her hands.

"Oops", she laughed, kicking the head down from the hole in the ground. It made a splashing sound and she giggled with delight.

The mercenary was looking at her all like: "Are you seriously that childish?" and Arizona grinned at him, coaxing him to say something. But maybe he_ was_ mute. But was he mute because something in his body was broken or was it all in his head?

"I know, I know", Arizona sighed when he wouldn't turn away his stern gaze. "The corps will attract deathclaws. But it was an accident, I swear!"

The dude just sighed and stared making a campfire.

"You know, the road up ahead is full of deathclaws! There'll be like… dozens of 'em! So maybe… maybe we should try and find another way around?"

The mercenary just opened his bedroll and tucked in. The dude even _slept_ in that gasmask! Talk about a problem. What was he, a ghoul? His skull was filled with uneven patches of skin and muscle but at least his skin wasn't flaking of every now and then like a ghoul's. He must just be really, _really_ ugly. Or shy. Arizona giggled at the thought.

In a matter of minutes the guy was fast asleep. Arizona wished she'd be able to doze off as quickly. But it didn't work that way on her. She needed time. And time she didn't have most of the nights.

She didn't feel like sleeping, not yet anyways. She felt like running around, digging through the rubble like a little molerat. Today had been so cool! She would've never been able to get past all those tunnelers on her own but she had a real guardian angel with a scoped rifle and a mean attitude with her now. The dude might have not liked her much but at least he hadn't done anything bad to her yet. And that was more than she could say about most of the people she'd met. Not many could stand her constant babbling. She gave the mercenary a look. He wasn't that bad. Just a little restrained, that's all.

Still too restless to fall asleep Arizona climbed higher to the top of the building. The concrete was very loose up there but she trusted her nimble limbs enough to keep going up and up.

From up here she could see the whole Divide. It was truly a sad place. What ever had made her to come here? Sure, she'd found a lot of valuable loot but this place could kill her in an instant if she let her guard down for even a second. Divide was a death trap.

But from the Divide she had found her fist friend. And that was something.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Arizona woke up with a startle. A loud bang from close proximity made her jump several meters high in the air.

It was the fucking mercenary with his fucking rifle. Sun hadn't even gotten up yet and he was practicing shooting? Stupid fuck!

"What in the holy hell are you doing?!" she whispered furiously. The dude was lying flat on his stomach, aiming through the scope and fired again. From the distance Arizona could hear the easily recognizable roar of a deathclaw. Shivers ran through her spine as she peeked from around the concrete to the general direction of the roar. There was a huge deathclaw on top of a long dead Winnebago. The giant lizard was dead as well, thanks to a fist-sized hole in his head.

There were three dead deathclaws on the ground below. Apparently they had come in the dead of night to sniff at the blood of the splattered head on the ground. Arizona winced in realization. She'd brought the beasts to their hiding place.

"You think you got them all?" she asked hopefully.

Dude just shrugged nonchalantly. How the fuck could he stay cool when they were cornered by like a hundred of deathclaws. They might all be just hiding or something! There must be more, they always lived in packs, didn't they?

The mercenary lifted up a small handheld computer thingy. Arizona took a closer look.

"_Ohhh! _Is this a Pip-boy 2000?! They're like super rare and expensive and shit! Oh my God! Where'd you get this? Wait? What is this… does this mean there aren't any hostiles nearby?"

The guy nodded. Arizona sighed in relief.

"So you _did_ get them all! I knew you would. You're my hero after all. I wouldn't choose a hero who's a complete wimp! You know, I used to know this guy who hung out with all these bad-ass dudes just to look cool. But I saw under that. He was such a pussy. I stole his caps and he was _so _furious an' – hey! Wait up!"

The mercenary was climbing down the side of the building and Arizona had to make haste to pack her stuff before she'd lose the sight of him.

"So, where was I? Yea… so this dude – "

She kept on chatting for the whole way through the highway. It felt like she hadn't had a talking companion in _ages_ and she had so much to say! About the old lady that trained molerats on her backyard and the crazy gang of old bitches with rolling pins kicking asses around Vegas. And the dude just listened to her. Or at least he looked like he was listening. Not even once would he tell her to shut up. Totally cool guy. Arizona cheered when he killed off deathclaws with his amazing rifle. She wasn't into rifles or pistols or any of those guns, energy weapons were her thing. They didn't kick back as much and felt warm to touch. She'd thought that all regular guns were clumsy but damn! That dude knew how to shoot! Truly a bad-ass personality. Just then Arizona decided that when she would grow up, she'd be just like him. Except a bit more talkative. And feminine. And nice. And more bad-ass. Yeah. Just like him.

They reached Asthon Silo Control Station without any further trouble. Since the Courier had killed off the tunneler pack that had lived in the elevator tunnel, their journey underground was easy and smooth. Arizona winced at the stench of dead tunnelers in the lift but it was nothing she couldn't handle. The mercenary didn't even seem to notice. It must have been that mask of his.

The doors slid open and they stepped out into a small room. Arizona felt the close proximity of the walls fall into her. She shuddered. The mercenary gave her a quick look.

"It's nothing", she mumbled.

The room was so small. The ceiling was too close. The blinking lights from the computers weren't enough to keep the darkness away. Arizona clenched her fists tightly.

"Would it be okay if I stayed here for a moment? So I can like… catch my breath… or something."

She was half expecting for him to start laughing at her or something but no. He just nodded. And before he went on he touched Arizona's shoulder carefully. Like he was trying to comfort her. The gesture was awkward and the mercenary fell back quickly, nodding again. He slipped through a door on the opposite side of the room. Arizona was left alone in that fucking room with those stupid lights.

"Stupid", she muttered to herself, closing her eyes. The destroyed eyebot she'd mentioned was close; she should have gone with the dude to show him where it was. But here she was, shivering like a lost child. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

There was a loud crash from somewhere close. Arizona's eyes snatched open in an instant.

"Uhm… dude?"

No response. Arizona's hand clenched tightly around the plasma defender. There was a loud boom from somewhere close by. Then she heard a familiar voice.

There was a sentrybot over there.

But surely the mercenary would be able to take care of it, right?

Arizona got on her feet and sneaked closer. She could hear the bot's wheels roll as the robot moved around. But where the hell was the mercenary?

There he was, behind a desk. Arizona could see him breathe uneasy but he was alive. Hurt, but alive. The sentry had given up on him since he was unconscious but it would be hard on his ass once he came through. Good thing Arizona knew a thing or two about robotics.

She waited until the robot rolled further away following his routine and slipped behind it. The robot's sensors had a weak spot at the back of its body and Arizona knew how to take an advantage out of that. She fingered the wires that got out of the sentrybot's chassis and tugged them off. The robot was immediately deactivated.

"Oh shit, dude. You look _awful!_" Arizona huffed, dragging the barely conscious mercenary out of his hiding spot. "Lemme get you into that Auto-Doc over there. Ever used one?"

He shook his head weakly.

"Okay, lemme show you. Here's the mainframe. And then you choose to conduct a physical exam. I'll help you in."

He shook his head again, poking at his broken bandages. They had burned where the bot's laser had touched it and Arizona saw the patched skin under it. She frowned at the scars. They looked bad.

"Oh… You want privacy? Um… sure thing. Imma just… uhm… imma go look at the eyebot now, you get in the Doc and get yourself healed, okay?"

He nodded and crawled into the Auto-Doc. Arizona sighed out loud. Damn, she would have wanted to see what the dude looked like under all those clothes and bandages. For once she had wanted to see his face. But no, he just went into the Doc and slid close the door. Well, fuck that.

Arizona sauntered to the room that she had hacked open last time she'd been here. She started poking around the destroyed eyebot on the floor while waiting for her hero with a rifle.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's note:**_ Yay, new chapter is finally up! And I have some good news. This fic has now a beta, so that should mean less silly typos and overall better quality. So hooray! Once again I'd like to thank __MrVemom10__ for reviewing and also volunteering to be my beta. _

_ I'm feeling good about this fic. And I'm happy to see that others like my writings as well. _

_ Read, review and enjoy!_

* * *

The Auto-Doc experience was something new for the anonymous bounty hunter. Sure, she'd seen some during her travels through the Mojave but she'd made a point not to go playing with pre-war tech she didn't know.

There was a tingly feeling on her skin, like she'd been exposed to radiation. But it was different. She felt warm, like she was on fire.

Ano punched the button to open the door. She hadn't been completely healed but it would do. She wrapped herself quickly into another set of bandages and left the room.

Damned Auto-Doc. Her wounds hadn't even been that bad, nothing that couldn't have been healed with a stimpack or two.

She found the girl sitting in a room with a dead eyebot. Ano nodded in acknowledge as she entered the small room. The girl gave her a circuit board.

"So is that like the third one now?" she asked.

Nod.

"Okay. How many are we looking for anyways?"

She lifted an eyebrow under the mask. Then she lifted four fingers, then five. Then she put one finger down to make it four again.

"Okay, either you're after four hundred and fifty four eyebots which means you'll never leave Divide again or then you mean four or five. That's cool. Whatever floats your boat, but I think you'll find more luck with four or five."

Ano let out an involuntary chuckle which made Arizona smile widely. "Yeah! A laugh! Score, Arizona wins again! Woohoo!" Ano shook her head dismissively. Damn kid.

"I unlocked the door all by myself, by the way!" the kid announced. "Well… I hacked the door, really… but opened it up anyway. I told you his before, didn't I? For some reason the Courier hadn't done that already."

The woman scoffed, helping Arizona up. "Yea, you've got a point. He isn't the sharpest tool in the box if you ask me. Everyone is talking so highly 'bout him though. There must be something to him. But he never opens doors or hacks anything. He just shoots. And I've heard he's a real silver tongue. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to just… like… talk people into submission! Yea! Wouldn't that be cool?"

Ano nodded, while she crouched on the stairs leading down into a hole in the ground. That was where they were going next. But there were two tunnelers there. She took a quick aim and shot them both with swift movements. Arizona cheered next to her.

"And he came an' he conquered an'… hmm… was there something else? Came, conquered… saw? Naw… maybe? Whaddya think?"

The girl didn't seem to be waiting for a response of any kind so Ano just kept on moving. Although she found Arizona's constant babbling somewhat annoying, she had to admit that she didn't hate the way the girl lifted her spirits. It felt nice to have some company every once and a while. And the girl was quite good with that energy weapon of hers. Was it Gloria? Yes, that was what she had called it. Ano hadn't named her dearest weapon at all. Maybe she should. Or maybe Arizona should do it for her.

They entered an old building that according to her Pip-boy was named Sunstone tower. There had obviously been a pack of tunnelers there but someone – most likely the Courier – had taken them down and left their bodies to rot in the empty hallways.

Arizona was gagging in a way that made Ano happy that she had a gasmask on. It dulled her senses enough to take away the smell that the corpses were most likely emitting.

The two of them climbed higher, looting the rooms. Ano noticed immediately that her Pip-boy wasn't receiving any signals from destroyed eyebots but Arizona wanted to scavenge so they did. Of course Ano could have just left the girl behind and keep on going but the idea made her uneasy so she stayed. Damned girlie had made her soft. Oh well, no-one else was watching so it didn't matter.

"Oh! Lookee here! This one is a classic! And it's in pristine condition!" Arizona squeaked holding up a book that in Ano's eyes was just that: a book. "I know this lazy ol' coot that'll pay me good caps from a book like this. An' it's in hard covers!"

Ano rolled her eyes and started pulling her rifle apart. There were no tunnelers nearby and Arizona would take her sweet time turning every single piece of junk around to see if it had any value. She had her small backpack filled with loot already and while cleaning up her gun Ano saw her toss some less valuable objects off of her bag. That girl was a professional prospector. Ano smiled inwardly as she kept on checking up on her rifle, putting the pieces back together with care.

"Ok, no more stuff to collect", the girl announced. "Shall we continue or should we rest for the day?"

Resting sounded good. There were a few mattresses clean enough to sleep on and it was good to have a roof on top of them for the night. Ano waved towards the mattress on the floor and kept on tinkering with her gun.

Arizona squirmed on the bed, squealing with delight when the old bed frame groaned under her weight. She bounced on it for a couple of times until she turned on her tummy to face Ano.

"You any good with plasma weapons?"

Ano lifted her head to take a look at the pistol the girl was holding for her to see. She shook her head.

"Aww… too bad, would've asked you to help me repair it. It costs like a million caps to keep it working! The assholes at the Gun runners won't cut me a deal no matter how hard I try my puppy eyed technique. And it usually works so well! I'm telling you, that guy down there, he's a real prick. That… whatshisname… You know, the guy in the hat… Isaac something. You know that guy?"

She nodded. She knew him indeed. The guy had looked at her funny one time when Ano had been buying .308 calibre rounds from him. If the Gun runners wouldn't be so God damned good at what they did, she would have shot him then and there. They charged way too much for their ammo though. Maybe she should have shot him, just for fun. Ano smiled under the mask.

"I try to find spare parts to make the deal cheaper but the robot in that box is so fucking stupid! Cheap mother fucker! I swear, if I'd get in that booth with him, I'd hack him so bad, people wouldn't even know what hit him. I'd make him give me fifty per cent discount. And you too, 'cause you're cool. And then I'd make him repair my shit for free! Yeah!"

Ano couldn't help but laugh a bit. It was just a short little snort that seemed to escape from wrong lips but it was her alright. It sounded wrong. She just didn't know how to laugh anymore, wasn't sure if she had ever really known. The thought made her feel empty. She set her rifle on the floor and opened her bedroll.

Ano felt Arizona's keen eyes on her when she buried herself deep into the sleeping bag. The girl had silenced as well. Maybe even she had been spooked by her laugh.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_"I think she's staring to wake up, pops."_

_"Hmh? Yea, you're right. Good morning missy. How are we feeling today?"_

_Pain. Her skin was on fire. She felt it itching like she had a rash deep inside her skin. But the skin was gone, all of it, burnt off._

_The only thing that the legionaries had left behind was the number carved on her skin. She should have known it wouldn't disappear. She should have known even the fires of hell couldn't erase the number IV from her body. _

_What she had been made wouldn't go away. Not with time, not with prayers. She was and always would be number IV._


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's**** note:**_ I really have nothing to say about this chapter but starting one without saying something feels odd. It's a chapter. I had fun writing it. I'm tired and school continues tomorrw (sniff) so better just post this and get some rest. _

_As always: read, review and enjoy!_

* * *

The dreams wouldn't leave her alone.

They had always been bad, but never had they kept her from sleeping. But now every time the anonymous bounty hunter closed her eyes, she was set on fire again and again. Her scars were itching like crazy, making her twitch in her bedroll with discomfort.

The girl had been silent for hours and some time ago she had finally started breathing deeper, indicating she'd fallen asleep. But Ano couldn't do that. Her body was tired but her mind wouldn't let her relax.

She had experienced insomnia like this when she'd been kept in the Old Mormon Fort for healing but that had been long time ago.

Her trigger finger was twitching, wanting to wrap around the familiar piece of metal and pull it. Her whole body tensed at the idea.

She wanted to kill something, she needed to do it. But the whole building had been purged. No. She should be sleeping. Her body needed the rest, even if she couldn't sleep. She should just stay where she was and try to relax.

Ano closed her eyes under the mask, feeling the pressure of the goggles ease a bit. She wore those nonstop which had caused bruises colour the skin around her eyes. It didn't really matter since no-one would see that anyway but the pain was irritating. She brushed the glass protecting her eyes from the winds and dust of the world. Could she just remove them?

No. The girl might wake up and see her. She didn't want that. The girl would be afraid. And Ano didn't want to scare the girl with her appearances. Everybody else was already afraid of her; Ano didn't want to scare of her travelling companion.

She tried closing her eyes again. Behind her eyelids she was roasting on a cross. She blinked. No. Better stay awake.

But she just couldn't stay where she was. She needed to move. She needed to kill something. So she stood up careful not to wake up the sleeping child and scooped up her rifle. She slipped out of the room they had vacated and headed up. She climbed the stairs until she reached the top of the Sunstone tower and sneaked out of the door.

The view would have been gorgeous if there had been something else than collapsed buildings, cliffs and crumbled concrete. High form the top of the old skyscraper Ano could see miles ahead. But that didn't matter. What mattered were the deathclaws trotting down below. Smiling to herself she lay down on her stomach and removed her goggles. Then she set the rifle resting against her shoulder and started practicing her sniping skills.

There were three deathclaws that were easy prey form the distance. They were so big that they weren't really that hard to miss. And Ano hardly ever missed. The marked men were a harder matter. They were so small and kept on bouncing around like headless chicken and Ano had to wait long moments before squeezing the trigger. But the wait was worth it. She shot them down one by one, not even once missing her target.

Five deathclaws, a dozen of marked men and an unlucky molerat later, the sun was getting up and Ano felt vigorous. But she knew the feeling wouldn't last long so it might be better to keep a low profile during the day. Her Pip-boy had given her a signal so there was an eyebot somewhere close.

The door behind her swung open and Ano rushed to pull the goggles back on. They sunk into her skin, burying into their old imprints.

"Thought ya could get rid of me so easy? Nice try!" Arizona cheered and sat next to her, swinging her legs over the edge of the building.

Ano shrugged and loaded her rifle again. One more deathclaw had wondered into her line of sight and it was sniffing on its dead pack member with little interest. Shooting it was almost too easy.

"You know, I once knew this gal who told me that deathclaws are actually highly intelligent. That there's actually a way to communicate with them. Wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't brought a big-ass lizard into the Freeside for everyone to see. But I wouldn't go sticking my neck to a wild 'claw with that communication of hers. I dunno what happened to that gal. Heard she was fighting in the Thorn last time I was in Freeside. Cool lass though."

Ano gave the girl a look that said it all. Arizona started giggling. "You're probably right. She's dead by now for sure! Playing around with 'claws. Idiot! But she really did talk to that tame beast of hers a lot."

After half an hour of sniping from the roof Ano felt it was safe enough to venture to the ground level. They did stop by at almost every room they found though to satisfy Arizona's need for looting. Ano even got to show her how to pick locks easier. Although she would never admit it, the anonymous bounty hunter was quite enjoying herself with the girl. From time to time she almost felt like a human again. But that dream was always short lived. It did feel good though.

It was surprisingly painless to find the eyebot that was making her Pip-boy beep. It was just on top of a pile of rubble that Arizona had been examining in hopes of finding something valuable. She came down, jumping all exited.

"Ooh! I found it now, mister. Up here, up here! Follow me if your old bones can carry you!"

All that noise the girl was making made Ano nervous in this new environment but it seemed like she had already killed all the wild beasts from the place. They could have sung prewar songs as loud as they liked if they wanted but Ano wasn't really a singing type.

As Arizona mangled the circuit board off of the eyebot Ano realized that there was another destroyed robot in close proximity. Her Pip-boy kept on beeping in her hand and at first she thought the damn thing was malfunctioning. She considered smashing it against a nearby rock but thought better of it. She gave it to Arizona instead.

"What? Oh, there's another one?"

Ano shrugged. That was what she wanted to know.

"Yea, there's another one. Cool huh? One more and you've reached your goal. We get to leave this shithole!"

Ano scoffed. The girl had been free to leave whenever she pleased. It was obvious that she could easily sneak past all the monsters in Divide so there must have been a better reason for her staying with the unsocial mercenary. Ano didn't care to think too much about it.

They spent half an hour looking for the damn thing but they found neither head nor tail from the destroyed robot. Maybe the Pip-boy was broken. That would give her a good reason to buy 3000 model. Would be easier to carry it on her wrist. Just as Ano started to think about leaving the place and wandering further into the Divide, Arizona nudged her shoulder.

The touch made the anonymous bounty hunter freeze. It had been so long since someone had voluntarily touched her in any way that it felt wrong. It hurt her like fire. She hissed through the gasmask making the girl take a quick step back.

"Hey, hey, hey! Chill, dude! Didn't mean anything by it. I just thought that maybe we ought to look from up there. We've not been there yet."

There was a scared look in the child's eyes, one that Ano had gotten used to during the years behind the mask. She was a monster to them, not much better than a pissed deathclaw. And now she had even managed to scare the one person that had had the curiosity to hang around her like a little pet. Stupid. She snarled through the mask and headed towards the direction the girl had been pointing at.

It was just another collapsed building with an easy access. Some metallic supporting structure was jutting out of it and it helped the two of them climb up to a mostly intact platform. Ano started looking around, making a point not to get too close to the girl. She might scare the child again. She didn't want to do that.

"Um… dude?" came the silent little voice from the general direction of the girl. Ano flinched uncomfortably at the sound of her voice. She had never sounded that uncertain, not around her at least. She felt like a complete brute.

"There's like this pipe over there. But I think I heard something move in there. Are… are you gonna take a look or what?"

She nodded, happy at the thought of getting to kill something. Hopefully it would be something she could strangle with her bare hands, Ano felt like she wanted to hurt something. Bruise something. Make them scream. Anything but facing Arizona's scared eyes.

She slipped into the slimy pipe. It was so dark in there; she barely saw what was ahead of her. It wasn't the first time she hoped for a night vision goggles. She heard something move up ahead. The snarling and hissing they were making indicated tunnelers.

"I have a flare gun", Arizona whispered from a distance. "If you'd like?"

She shook her head. No, she wanted to get them by surprise and shooting a ball of fire in a tunnel wouldn't help on that. She slipped deeper and waited. She waited patiently for five minutes until her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. The she pulled out her rifle and shot the creature at the end of the pipe.

Its companion screeched with fury and lunged towards Ano with a frightening speed. The woman just grinned under the mask and tossed her gun away to fight the tunneler with her bare hands. She captured the creature's throat under her fingers and started squeezing. It was twitching and turning but couldn't even scrape her with its black claws. It was too easy. Ano growled with frustration and plunged her fist through the creature's thick skin.

It had been a long time since she'd done that.

"Is it safe yet?" Arizona called. "I assume that the death wails of a tunneler meant it's safe down there. Is the thingy there?"

Ano looked around until she saw a destroyed eyebot on the ground. She let out an agreeing sound to the girl. Not long after Arizona came stumbling down through the tunnel.

"Whoa. It's pretty dark in here. Err… Point me into the right direction, I guess."

Five minutes later the fourth eyebot had been removed from its circuit board. That meant they could get back to Hopeville Silo Bunker and Arizona could dislodge the circuit board from the first eyebot that Ano had found. That would make five circuit boards, at least four hundred caps each. Not bad.

"Does this mean we can go?" Arizona inquired.

She nodded in response.

"Cool. I was getting tired of the Divide anyways. Let's go!"

The way back would be easy. They would just follow their own footsteps through a path that they had purged already. The journey should go twice as fast without any hostile encounters.

Too bad things never went as planned. Once they got out of the pipe and back into the broad daylight they were greeted by at least a dozen of deathclaws, all pissed as hell because of their dead brethren.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's note:**_ Hello once again. Long time, no see. 10__th__ chapter is up and ready! Yippee! One thing I learned at school last week was that human eye adapts to darkness in 20-30 minutes. Interesting indeed. Why am I bringing this up now, you ask. Well, in chapter 9 I kind of sort of wrote that Ano was able to see fully well in the dark after five minutes. Whoops. Well, you learn something new anyway and seriously, this fic is far from realistic J and yet here you are. Reading my needles chatter. _

_ A big thanks to __Radio Free Death__ for reviewing. I should probably take some time to look into these flaws and do some corrections. Let's see if I can kick my lazy ass to do that. But thanks._

_ Read, review and enjoy (although this is a ridiculously short chapter)!_

* * *

(Arizona's point of view)

There was at least a _hundred_ of 'em and they had surrounded the building. They were all sniffing around and making these super scary noises and Arizona just knew they were after them.

The mercenary pulled her back into the pipe and pushed down onto the grime. She squealed in disgust as the mud started seeping through her reinforced denim jacket and the tad bit too big armor under it. Fucking idiot just had to go on target practicing on the 'claws and now they were all on a warpath. This was just great.

"Why aren't you shooting at them already?!" she whispered, keeping her distance. She didn't want to piss him off again. He had looked like he was about to jump on her when she had touched him. Not a pleasant thought about a scary-ass mercenary.

He gave her a quick look that spoke in volumes.

"I get it. Shoot one now, they _all _know where we are, right? So we get to kill one before we die?"

He nodded. Oh, he was so easy to read. Like he was her long-lost big sister. Wow, that was creepy. You couldn't be both man _and _a sister, right? Such a shame. Arizona already had like five brothers so one more was nothing fancy.

"Maybe there's another way. On the other side of the pipe or something?"

He shook his head, making the leather of his mask creak with discomfort.

"You checked already?"

A nod. Perfect.

He was lying on his stomach and measuring the ground far below them. The way they had climbed up to the pipe was big enough for the deathclaws so shooting was not a good idea. They'd need to figure out something else, obviously. The mercenary dug his Pip-boy and flipped to the map mode. He zoomed it in and shoved Arizona the map of the place they were in at the moment. He was pointing at a cave of a sort.

"We go there? How? And how are we going to make sure those stupid beasts aren't just gonna follow us there? Huh?"

He pointed at the sky, towards the sun. Then he pointed the deathclaws and moved his hand to his goggled eyes.

"Umm… I got the part where we wait until the sun goes down… but… umm… What was that…?"

He sighed and pointed the creatures sauntering on the ground.

"Yea? Deathclaws…"

He pointed his eyes again.

"Eyes?"

He waved his hand in front of his face.

"_Oh! _You mean deathclaws had bad eyesight?"

A curt nod.

"And we wait until it's dark and sneak past them._ Brilliant!_"

The thing was, Arizona wasn't really good at waiting and staying put. After a quarter of an hour she started to twitch where she lay, moving with discomfort. The dude gave her a long look that could only be described as cold.

"What? I aint no lazy bitch! I can't just lie down and wait, I need to _do_ something."

The dude sighed aloud and gave her his Pip-boy. Arizona squealed in delight. That thing should keep her occupied… for like twenty minutes.

Lucky for them the sun set quickly and some of the deathclaws seemed to give up on finding the murderer of their pack members. As Arizona and her newfound sister-brother sneaked down from the building there were only like five of them on sight. But the rest couldn't be far.

Now, Arizona herself knew that she could move without making a noise. She'd practiced that ability for her whole life, starting when she was avoiding her drunken dad at the age of three. But the mercenary was too big to go easily unnoticed. Surprisingly he made no sound moving around and guiding her towards this cave he had shown her on the map.

Getting there was a piece of cake. But what awaited them there was something different completely.

"You just had to bring us to a fucking nest of tunnelers now didn't you?" Arizona hissed at the man. He let out a sigh and started shooting with his rifle. Arizona had noted that he was very precise with the thing and always hit what he was aiming at. Even with the ever so agile tunnelers. She herself on the other hand was not so lucky.

They got separated and three tunnelers surrounded her immediately. Arizona shot at them but got none, they were just too fast for her unsteady aiming. One got too close and scraped her with those ugly claws. There was something green on them and it stung like cazador venom. Arizona hissed and kicked the fucking ugly creature off of her but just as she got one away from her, the other two got closer. She managed to shoot the other one, turning it into a pile of goo but the other, this big hulking thing, dodged her firing and tripped her down on the cold floor.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's note:**_ Hello, hello and once again, thank you for coming all the way here to read my little fic. First off, to me it feels like it had been ages since I've posted a new chap but I guess it hasn't been that long. And since my beta has been awfully busy lately, this chapter has not been thoroughly checked by more skilled… um… English… speaker? Okay, I lost it, I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. But no worries, no worries. All I know is that I was going to say something like: "My humble apologies", but now I can't recall what else there was to say. I seriously need to take a nap or start drinking coffee or something._

_ But enough rambling! I solemnly swear that from now on I am going to a new chapter once a week. Be it betad (or however you say that, I haven't got the slightest) or not! Let's see how long that lasts. _

_ Okay. Eleventh chapter up and at the moment it would seem that this is going to be a 20 chapter fic. Goody. Not too long, I assume. And my mind is trying to talk to me about a sequel. We'll see about that. Now, time to throw away all the thoughts of a realistic fanfic, it's time to fight tunnelers!_

_ Was there something else that needed to be said? Hmh… I can't recall. Oh well, this babbling author is going to say: "read, review and enjoy" and go to sleep. Have fun._

* * *

They were everywhere. And there were plenty of them. She felt like laughing when she was massacring them one by one, spilling their blood on the floor, shooting them down like flies. They swarmed on her, trying to bring her down by sheer numbers but they were almost too easy prey for her rifle.

The world around her became null as the bloodlust pumped through her veins. There was nothing else but her and her next kill. The bombs could have fallen again next to her and she wouldn't have noticed. She was breathing heavy but it felt all too wonderful. She was picturing the Legion as she shot through the calloused skin of her opponents. She was giving the face of Dead Sea to every single one of her opponents and laughing manically as she killed them. Again and again she killed him. But none of that would bring the past back to her. It made her bloodlust run more hot.

There was this one ugly bitch that managed to dodge her bullets. It was bigger than the rest and obviously the head of her little flock. She was sauntering around Ano like some fucking queen. Well, the bounty hunter was having none of that. She swung her rifle onto her back and lunged at the tunneler with her bare hands. If that bitch wasn't going to give her a good fight, then no-one would.

Ano swirled around, dodging the tunneler queen's attack. The creature was fast and it was hard to avoid its attacks. The bounty hunter laughed aloud and kicked the tunneler in its stomach, making it double over. It was hissing and snarling when her knuckles connected with its face. It lunged forward, slashing through Ano's shirt and bandages, drawing blood. The bounty hunter swept the creature off its feet and crushed it under her weight.

A sound was trying to get her attention; it was trying to distract her from this fight. Ano snarled, trying to cover the voice with her own but it just wouldn't go away. She tossed the tunneler queen off of her to get the chance to look around.

The first thing she noticed was the bloody pool she was standing in. She had killed a lot of tunnelers and their remains were scattered all around her. She felt a smile tugging at her lips. The second thing was the pitched screaming. The smile died.

Arizona.

There were three tunnelers on her, ripping her frail body into pieces. But she was still alive and kicking. Ano flipped her rifle from her back and managed to shoot two of the creatures without trouble. But that was when the tunneler queen jumped on her, throwing Ano off her feet. It was hissing and spitting on her face while it was trying to claw her throat open. But Ano wasn't on the mood anymore. The brawling was over. She hit the creature with the butt of her gun, knocking it over. Then she shot it in the head three times before shooting the one remaining tunneler from Arizona.

She stood there for a moment, unmoving and listening to their surroundings. There was nothing but Arizona's ragged breathing. They had killed the entire nest.

When she was absolutely sure there were no more critters in the cave, she ran to Arizona, who was still lying on the ground, bleeding out with steady pace.

She kneeled before the kid and grabbed two stimpacks from her pocket only to find their syringes broken. The liquid inside them had drained out. She roared in despair. How could she have been so carless?

"Oh… Hi", Arizona mumbled. "Did'ya kill 'em? I bet you killed them all."

There had to be something. Something she could use. Arizona was in bad shape, her stomach had been sliced many times and her limbs were in awful condition. The girl closed her eyes and Ano thought her heart stopped for a moment.

There was a greenish blue glint in the far distance. Ano stood up and looked at it through her scope. An Auto-Doc. But… she didn't know how to use them!

There was no time. Arizona's eyes were still closed, but her chest was still rising and falling indicating she was still alive. Ano scooped the girl's small body in her arms and ran to the Auto-Doc. She dumped the girl in not caring if she'd been gentle r not and slammed the door shut. She'd seen Arizona using the computer, it shouldn't be too hard. Hmmm… Conduct physical exam? Yes.

The machine started humming softly and it was emitting warmth from it. It was a good sign, wasn't it?

She had no idea how long the healing process would last. But she knew that there was no place for her to go. Not until the girl was okay. So she sat down on the ground, resting her back against the Auto-Doc and closed her eyes.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's note:**_ Felt bad about posting such a shamefully short chapter so decided to put this other, even shorter chap out here as well. God, I'm tired. Just let me crawl in my bed and never ever get up. No, can't. School day tomorrow. Oh great, haven't done my homework…_

_ Why am I writing this in here?_

_ Oh, forget it. _

_ Rre._

* * *

(Arizona's point of view)

It was nice and warm in there. Was she in Heaven?

There was a sting on her arm. No, this was no Heaven, it hurt too God damn much.

Arizona opened her eyes and realized she was in an Auto-Doc. The thing was injecting her with pain-numbing medicine while healing her wounds. It felt so good. She didn't want to get out of there, not any time soon anyway.

How had she gotten in this thing anyways? Maybe the mercenary had tossed her in? That would make sense. Last time she'd seen him he had been fighting the big-ass tunneler bitch with his bare hands. Talk about stupidity. That's like going against a deathclaw with a toothpick. Not the brightest idea.

The sound of the Auto-Doc was nice and soothing. Arizona felt like closing her eyes and sleeping some more.

All too soon the Doc let out a series of beeps letting her know that the process was complete. The door slid open and Arizona was forced to step out.

"Fucking perfect", she muttered.

The mercenary who had been resting against the Doc stood up and gave her a scrutinizing look. He seemed… nervous? maybe he had been worried? How sweet.

"I'm okay. I'm alive!" Arizona announced to him. That seemed to sooth the man a bit, his shoulder slumped just by a millimeter. Good.

The mercenary didn't look too good. There was a gaping bloody hole in his hoodie and there were multiple gashes around his body. But apparently he had survived the huge mother fucking tunneler just like that. Crazy son of a bitch.

"Okay, your turn", Arizona said, pointing out to the Auto-Doc.

He shook his head.

"Are you stupid? You want those to get infected?" she asked, pointing his wounds.

He just shrugged.

"The least you can do is let me help you change those bandages, their filthy as fuck."

He took a step back and was obviously staring at her.

"What?"

He shook his head and tried to cover his bandages. The wraps were ripped and their white color had been dulled with sand and dust. Arizona winced in disgust, God that must feel awful.

He noticed her look and seemed… sad. He looked at his bandages and Arizona heard him sigh. He nodded.

"So… you gonna need help with those?"

He shook his head vigorously and made a shooing motion with his hands.

"Oh… _Oh!_ You want _privacy!_" she giggled. "What are you, a teenage girl? Oh, what the hell. I'll go looking around; maybe I find something worth scavenging. I'll be back in an hour or something."

Hah! If the dude thought for a second she was going to just turn her eyes and wait for him to change, he must have dipped his head to radioactive waste. Maybe he _was_ a ghoul. Naw, not even ghouls were that stupid. Arizona had wanted to see what the mercenary was hiding under his thick layers of clothes for far too long and now a chance to sate that need had finally arrived.

Who could've thought a burly man like himself would be so God damned shy?


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's note:**_ Yay for a new chapter! Yay for reviews! I don't actually have anything to say, so I'm just going to post this without further ado. So here you go!_

Ano followed the girl with her eyes until she had disappeared from her view. Then she let out a tired sigh and brushed the patches of skin that were showing from under the bandages. She felt ugly, uglier than normally. Ano had _seen_ the look on the girl's eyes when she had looked at her. Even Arizona, the girl that had apparently accepted her unsocial behavior winced at the sight of her scars. Figures. That was why she wore the bandages, so that people wouldn't look at her like that. With hatred and _pity_. It made her sick.

Ano started removing the bandages, tearing them apart with her knife. They were ruined anyway. There was no point in saving the torn cloth. She ripped it apart and tossed on the floor. It was raining down like snow around her. Ano felt her hands fist with anger. This cursed body was like a cage to her. It wouldn't let her go as long as she lived. It was not like she missed the touch of men, no. She missed the ability to be able to be her own self around others. But no, this was what she was. Anyone with a brain cell would shoot her on sight.

She removed her clothes and bandages until she was standing naked in the cave. Her breathing was ragged so she removed the gasmask too. Ano's torn fingers rubbed her uneven scalp, tugging the odd hair or two that managed to grow from those patches of skin that hadn't been completely burned. She was indeed hideous. Well, at least now her looks matched her soul perfectly.

There was one burn mark on her that was different from all the others. It was her brand, her number. Her slave-name.

The number four had been tattooed on her long ago, in roman numbers. It was always well-hidden under her clothes and patches much like the scars but burned more than the sores ever could. She touched her marking with a careful finger and let out a low growl.

She heard a silent gasp from somewhere near. Should have known Arizona wouldn't go, should have known she couldn't stay away. The girl was way too curious for her own good. Ano straightened her back and flipped her fingers, inviting the girl to come closer.

"Um", came a small whisper. "Yeah. I wasn't gonna spy on you. I swear. Um well… I guess I was. Sorry. I didn't think… I mean…"

Ano sighed and shook her head.

"So. I guess you were a woman all this time. Sorry 'bout that. That's… um… you're not a beauty queen, I can tell you that."

Ano frowned at the girl, but ended up giving a small laugh instead of a growl. No, she was not a beauty queen.

"You… ummm… You wanna talk about it? Naw, stupid question, I know. But that looks pretty intense. Are those scars on your palms from crucifixion?"

Ano lifted her hands up to examine the wounds. Her own pieces of stigmata. She nodded curtly.

"I've seen people get crucified. It's not pretty. And are those burn marks?"

Another nod.

"That sucks, dude. Or… um… can I still call you dude? You're like the manliest lady I've ever seen. Umm… that was meant to be a compliment, by the way. At least now I don't have to fear that you'll go all pedo on me. Right?"

Ano just frowned at her seemingly mindless chatter. Then she got back to examining her marks.

"You know, you're a real bad-ass to survive all that", Arizona told her, pointing at her wounds. "You should be proud."

The woman shot a dirty look at the girl next to her and picked up the lotion. She spread it quickly and started wrapping herself up. Proud? Hah! Why should she be proud that she had to keep on living in this hell when she could be dead? She could be at peace. But no, she was trapped in this body.

This was ridiculous. The girl was being ridiculous. The faster they'd get the fifth eyebot and got out of the Divide, they would go on their separate ways. Ano nodded to herself as she covered up the evidence of her imperfections.


End file.
